Been There, Done Thatby Laura Nethken

Published: January 4, 2014 4:00 AM

I planned on working by myself on Thanksgiving Day. I mean, I didn't figure anybody else would be in the building. Everybody else would be home eating turkey.

I don't cook a big meal on Thanksgiving Day because that's just too much work to do to have to go to work the next day.

We usually cook and eat our big meal on the Saturday after. It helps round out the guest list, too. They may already have plans for Thanksgiving Day, but are usually free on Saturday.

But that plan wasn't going to work this year. Our oldest son is in class all day on Saturdays. For one thing, I can't see having Thanksgiving dinner without him and secondly, he was going to cook the turkey.

So we settled on Friday after Thanksgiving for our dinner. I still didn't want to cook on Thursday and besides, he and his fiance were spending the day with her parents.

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Cooking on Friday would still give me the weekend to rest up (and finish cleaning up), so I wanted to work Thursday so I could have Friday off.

I thought if I was by myself, it would be nice and quiet and I could get a lot of work done. I wasn't freaked out about being alone because I had done it a ton of times at our Ravenna office.

There were times when a lack of transportation meant I caught a ride to work with my husband -- at 5 a.m. Nobody else showed up at the office until about 7 a.m.

I didn't mind hearing the footsteps upstairs, presumably made by the resident ghost, Lydia. She didn't bother me and I didn't bother her. I didn't go upstairs and I definitely didn't go in the basement. That basement gave me the creeps even when there was a whole building full of people.

There were only two ways in and out of that building and you could hear both doors very clearly from anywhere in the office.

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So I had no qualms about working alone in our new building. Boy, was that a mistake. Worse than being by yourself is thinking you are when you're not.

I was having a little lunch when I caught movement out of the corner of my eye. I nearly had a cow when I saw a woman standing there. It wasn't Lydia following us to the new place, either. Nope, just the cleaning lady.

She was followed by a parade of about 10 other co-workers, who kind of appeared out of nowhere and all from seemingly different entrances. And then, I really was by myself. Great. Finally, I can get some serious work done. No more interruptions. Nothing but peace and quiet. And a couple of noises I couldn't identify the source of.

I called my husband for like the 16th time and told him I was going to stick it out for another hour or so and then come home. And then I heard the big crashie noise. I don't know what it was. Just something big crashing.

No big deal. I'm perfectly safe in here. Terrorists are not going to come rushing in to take over the main headquarters of the local daily newspaper. Are they?

OK, if this was a movie I was watching, I'd be screaming at the woman on the screen. "Get out of there! Get out right now!"

"Big crashie noises have some source of origin. Are you just going to sit there and naively wait for the monster to come right up behind you?"

So I calmly shut down my computer, grabbed my purse and called my husband on my cell phone on the way out the door. "I'm bailing. I'm on my way home now."

OK, so I'm a big sissy. As evidenced by the fact that when I had to work New Year's Day by myself, I got smart and brought my husband with me. He might be a little creeped out by Lydia, but he's not afraid of big crashie things.